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HON.    DANIEL   J.    GALLAGHER. 

ORATOR    OF    THE    DAY. 


ORATION 


Americans  Welded  by  War 


BY 


HON.  DANIEL  J.  GALLAGHER 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  CITY  GOVERNMENT   AND  CITIZENS  OF  BOSTON 

IN   FANEUIL  HALL,  ON   THE  ONE  HUNDRED  AND   FORTY-FIRST 

ANNIVERSARY  OF  THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE 

OF  THESE  UNITED  STATES,  JULY  4,   191? 


CITY  OF  BOSTON 

PRINTING  DEPARTMENT 


^^^^-^ 


AMEEICANS  WELDED  BY  WAR. 


FOURTH  OF  July  Oration,  1917. 


By  Hon.  Daniel  J.  Gallagher. 


Mr.  Mayor,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

One  hundred  and  forty-one  years  ago  today  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  by  unanimous  vote,  adopted  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  The  patriots  who  signed 
that  immortal  document  described  themselves  as  ''the 
Representatives  of  the  United  States  of  America"  and 
solemnly  declared  that 

all  political  connection  between  them  and  the  State  of  Great 
Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be,  totally  dissolved. 

It  is  to  commemorate  this  momentous  event,  and  to 
contemplate  the  results  which  it  has  produced,  that  we 
assemble  here  today  in  accordance  with  time-honored 
custom. 

In  other  days  the  triumph  of  our  Nation's  experi- 
ment, the  wondrous  benefits  it  has  wrought,  and  the 
still  more  glorious  altitudes  of  civic  excellence  to  which 
it  was  destined  to  ascend,  have  been  the  buoyant  theme 
of  the  day's  oration. 

Today  the  sombre  side  of  the  silver-lined  cloud  is 
exposed.  Our  exultant  anthem  carries  an  undertone. 
Our  cheers  for  the  radiant  symbol  of  our  liberty  are  all 


4  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

but  drowned  in  the  agonizing  shrieks  of  a  world  at  war. 
While  we  celebrate  the  total  dissolution  of  all  political 
connection  with  Great  Britain,  we  are  her  ally  and  she 
is  ours.  Blessing  the  day  in  which  we  were  delivered 
from  her  dominion,  we  find  ourselves  fighting  by  her  side 
to  save  her  from  destruction.  Thus  has  romance  been 
transmuted  into  history.  Thus  has  the  gospel  of  Ameri- 
canism, read  to  us  by  this  ardent  patriot-boy,  ennobled 
the  people  in  whose  name  and  for  whose  guidance 
it  was  penned  by  the  "Representatives  of  the  United 
States  of  America."  For  we  are  fighting,  not  for  empire, 
nor  booty,  nor  spoils,  but  for  a  cause  which  finds  its 
sanction  in  the  hearts  of  free  men  everywhere  —  yea, 
in  the  law  of  God  himself,  who  commanded  "Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself." 

Our  cause  has  been  aptly  epitomized  by  that  pure 
patriot  who,  in  the  providence  of  the  Most  High,  now 
administers  this  republic,  when  he  declared  our  sole 
purpose  "to  make  the  world  safe  for  democracy."  The 
stupendous  sacrifice  of  blood  and  gold  and  life  itself, 
which  we  have  undertaken,  intoxicates  the  imagination 
to  the  verge  of  madness.  So  terrible  is  the  gruesome 
prospect  that  some  are  shocked  into  violent  vocal  antag- 
onism to  our  participation  in  the  great  world  war. 

These  good  people  would  persuade  us  of  what  they 
are  pleased  to  call  the  folly  of  our  engagement  in  a 
quarrel  not  our  own  for  the  benefit  of  alien  peoples. 
The  weakness  of  their  protest  is  that  it  ignores  the  debt 
our  country  owes  to  alien  peoples.  In  the  establishment 
of  our  government,  and  the  development  of  our  civiliza- 
tion, we  have  been  from  the  beginning  alien  all. 


FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  5 

For  three  hundred  years  before  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  there  were  elements  of  population  upon 
American  soil  which  on  this  day  of  days  it  will  prove 
interesting  to  review.  French,  Spanish  and  English 
occupied  the  eastern  sea  coast.  The  Spaniards  had 
Florida,  Louisiana  and  what  was  called  California. 

The  western  country  was  opened  up  by  the  great 
French  Jesuits,  Father  Marquette  and  Father  Joliet, 
who  discovered  the  Mississippi,  La  Salle  and  his 
successors. 

The  Spaniards  founded  St.  Augustine,  Fla.,  in  1565. 

Walter  Raleigh  established  an  English  settlement  in 
Virginia  in  1607,  and  a  few  years  later  a  party  consisting 
of  thirty  Dutch  families  from  Holland  settled  in  New 
York. 

Thirteen  years  later,  in  1620,  the  Puritan  Pilgrims 
came  to  Plymouth.  In  1638  came  a  Swedish  colony 
which  settled  in  New  Castle,  Del. 

In  1643  the  Jesuit  martyr,  Father  Jogues,  reported 
that  he  found  eighteen  languages  spoken  in  the  streets 
of  New  York. 

Emigrants  from  Alsace,  Switzerland  and  other  prin- 
cipaUties  came  at  the  rate  of  12,000  yearly.  Twenty- 
five  years  before  the  Revolution  there  were  100,000 
Frenchmen  and  their  descendants  between  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  New  Orleans,  not  including  a  very 
large  number  of  French  scattered  through  the  thirteen 
colonies. 

New  Hampshire  and  southern  Pennsylvania  had 
thousands  of  emigrants  from  the  north  of  Ireland.  They 
were  the  pioneers  in  West  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas. 


6  FOURTH  OF   JULY   ORATION. 

In  early  colonial  times  Irishmen  by  the  shipload  were 
exiled  to  Virginia  and  Bermuda. 

There  was  also  the  Welsh,  a  Gaelic  strain,  the  parent 
stock  of  seventeen  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence. Scotchmen  were  found  in  every  English  colony 
and  the  Jews  from  Portugal  had  their  settlement  in 
Rhode  Island.  It  was  this  blended  population  which 
for  three  centuries  prepared  American  soil  for  the  seed 
of  human  liberty  —  Frenchmen,  Englishmen,  Welsh- 
men, Irishmen,  Spaniards,  Swedes,  Italians,  Dutchmen, 
Jew  and  Gentile. 

Now  that  lust  of  empire  is  assailing  the  kindred  of 
our  pioneers  and  threatening  slaughter,  rape  and  ruin 
where  they  have  not  yet  been  accomplished,  of  course 
America  rushes  to  the  aid  of  these  afflicted  nations,  and, 
by  anticipating,  prevents  attack  upon  her  own  hberties, 
which  in  the  logic  of  events  is  bound  to  be  attempted. 

Let  no  one  despair  of  the  republic  because  we  are  at 
war.  Despite  its  horrors,  even  war  has  its  compensa- 
tions. War  quickens  into  eager  action  that  amor  patrice, 
that  love  of  country  which  is  so  often  forgotten,  if  it  is 
not  violated  in  times  of  peace.  War,  or  rather  that 
sense  of  duty  which  war  alone  evokes,  exalts  the  man 
and  woman  to  heights  of  virtue  for  which  humanity  is 
slow  to  strive  when  peace,  with  its  resultant  indolence, 
reigns  in  the  land.  The  armored  patriot  faces  death 
with  a  courage  which  nothing  can  dismay  when  his 
comrades  are  dying  all  around  him  in  defence  of  his 
country.  War  in  a  holy  cause  facilitates  the  sacrifice 
of  all  that  life  holds  precious.  The  bride  of  a  day  speeds 
the  parting  of  her  soldier  husband  when   his   country 


FOURTH   OF  JULY  ORATION.  7 

calls  him,  perhaps  never  to  return.  The  mother  with 
trembling  fingers  buckles  on  the  armor  of  her  beloved 
boy  and  bids  him  go.  What  though  her  heart  should 
break?  Country  calls.  Duty  answers.  If  the  wife 
only  could  go  with  her  man,  if  the  mother  only  could  go 
with  her  boy!  Ah!  then  would  her  lot  be  easier  to  bear! 
The  seed  of  patriotism  is  in  the  heart  of  woman.  Love 
of  country  is  the  offshoot  of  mother  love,  and  both 
have  their  roots  in  love  of  God.  Nothing  but  war  can 
so  exalt  the  father  of  a  family  that  he  will  turn  his  back 
on  wife  and  children  to  court  the  peril  of  death. 

War,  despite  its  savage  horror,  yet  lifts  mankind 
above  itself;  and  though  on  the  one  hand  it  debases  and 
brutalizes,  it  yet  elicits  self-denial,  humility  and  other 
virtues,  to  which  humanity  must  needs  be  compelled 
occasionally  for  its  own  good. 

Our  national  life  had  its  beginning  in  the  throes  of  a 
bitter  struggle.  We  have  encountered  and  survived 
six  wars  and  find  ourselves  now  in  a  war  which  in  point 
of  refined  barbarity  exceeds  everything  in  the  experi- 
ence of  mankind. 

Whether  we  or  our  allies  by  our  misconduct  have 
invited  this  dreadful  holocaust  which  threatens  to 
destroy  the  world,  no  man  dare  say.  But  wise  men  here 
and  there  are  making  suggestions,  some  of  which  we 
may  profitably  consider,  after  the  manner  of  the  ancient 
Romans,  who  were  wont  to  take  counsel  together  lest 
any  harm  should  come  to  the  republic. 

One  of  these,  by  name  Rabindranath  Tagore,  an 
Indian  poet,  has  been  visiting  the  western  world  since 
the  war  began.     A  few  years  ago  he  was  awarded  the 


8  FOURTH   OF  JULY  ORATION. 

Nobel  prize  for  literature.     In  a  recent  number  of  the 
''Atlantic  Monthly"  this  Oriental  poet  contributed  an 
article,  giving  his  impressions  of  the  awful  cataclysm. 
He  argues  that  this  war  proves  to  the  world  that 

Europe  owes  all    her  greatness  in  humanity  to  that  period 
of  discipline,  the  discipline  of  the  man  in  his  human  integrity, 

which  was   as   Doctor  Walsh  points   out,  in  an  April 
number  of  ''America," 

an  important  feature  of  life  during  the  time  so  often  contemp- 
tuously referred  to  as  the  Middle  Ages. 

Tagore  says: 

In  your  medieval  age  in  Europe  the  simple  and  the  natural 
man,  with  all  his  violent  passions  and  desires,  was  engaged  in 
trying  to  find  a  reconciliation  in  the  conflict  between  the  flesh 
and  the  spirit.  All  through  the  turbulent  career  of  her  vigorous 
youth,  the  temporal  and  the  spiritual  forces  both  acted  strongly 
upon  her  nature,  and  were  molding  it  into  completeness  of 
moral  personality. 

He  deprecates  unsparingly  the  barbaric  theory  on 
which  small  defenceless  nations  have  been  oppressed  by 
larger  nations. 

He  asks  why  a  nation  must  organize  and  mobilize  all 
its  resources  to  make  ready  to  meet  the  aggression  of  a 
stronger  yet  civilized  nation. 

He  writes: 

But  you  say:  "That  does  not  matter.  The  unfit  must  go 
to  the  wall,  —  they  shall  die;  and  this  is  science."  Now,  for 
the  sake  of  your  own  salvation  I  say,  they  shall  live;  and  this 
is  truth.     It  is  extremely  bold  of  me  to  say  so,  but  I  assert  that 


FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  9 

man's  world  is  a  moral  world,  not  because  we  blindly  agree  to 
believe  it,  but  because  it  is  so  in  truth,  which  would  be  dangerous 
for  us  to  ignore.  And  this  moral  nature  of  man  cannot  be 
divided  into  convenient  compartments  for  its  preservation. 
You  cannot  accept  it  for  home  consumption  and  ignore  it 
abroad. 

Without  mentioning  Christianity,  he  makes  it  clear 
that  the  present  crisis  was  caused  by  neglect  of  moral 
forces  which  in  the  last  analysis  depend  upon  Chris- 
tianity. 

He  condemns  the  hoarding  of  wealth  which  is  now 
feeding  the  furnace  of  war.  He  has  something  quite 
disconcerting  to  say  to  those  who  have  affected  to  see  in 
great  wealth  a  special  blessing  of  Providence,  and  who 
are  prone  to  gauge  the  greatness  of  a  nation  by  its 
material  possessions.     Here  it  is: 

Has  not  this  truth  already  come  home  to  you  now,  when 
this  cruel  war  has  driven  its  claws  into  the  vitals  of  Europe, 
when  her  hoard  of  wealth  is  bursting  into  smoke,  and  her 
humanity  is  shattered  into  bits  on  her  battlefields?  You  ask 
in  amazement  what  she  has  done  to  deserve  this?  The 
answer  is  that  the  West  has  been  systematically  petrifying  her 
moral  nature  in  order  to  lay  a  solid  foundation  for  her  gigantic 
abstractions  of  efficiency.  She  has  all  along  been  starving  the 
life  of  the  personal  man  into  that  of  the  professional. 

Of  the  disharmony  between  man's  body  and  soul,  he 
writes  as  follows: 

Of  this  present  disharmony  in  man's  nature,  the  West  seems 
to  have  been  blissfully  unconscious.  The  enormity  of  its 
material  success  has  diverted  all  its  attention  toward  self-con- 


10  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

gratulation  on  its  bulk.  The  optimism  of  its  logic  goes  on, 
basing  the  calculations  of  its  good  fortune  upon  the  indefinite 
prolongation  of  its  railway  lines  toward  eternity.  It  is  super- 
ficial enough  to  think  that  all  tomorrows  are  merely  todays 
with  the  repeated  additions  of  twenty-four  hours.  It  has  no 
fear  of  the  chasm  which  is  opening  wider  every  day  between 
man's  overgrowing  storehouses  and  the  emptiness  of  his  hungry 
humanity. 

Do  not  these  observations  of  the  Oriental  scholar 
make  clear  the  age-old  raaxim  'Hhat  man  does  not  live 
by  bread  alone." 

Our  own  Lincoln,  whose  habit  of  meditation  se- 
questered him  from  the  chicane  of  his  contemporaries, 
said  during  the  Civil  War: 

Perhaps  in  the  order  of  Providence  this  great  war  will  not 
end  until  for  every  drop  of  negro  blood  shed  by  the  lash  a  drop 
of  free  white  blood  shall  be  shed  in  compensation. 

Our  American  society  had  for  generations  not  only 
tolerated  but  maintained  a  vicious  industrial  system 
which  in  the  mind  of  the  great  Emancipator  had  to  be 
atoned  for  that  justice  might  be  vindicated.  Does 
outraged  morality  the  world  over  now  require  another 
vindication;  and  is  this  war  the  means  by  which  that 
vindication  is^to  be  procured?  Does  the  world  need 
precisely  the  rigorous  discipline  of  this  war  to  bring  it 
once  more  body  and  soul  and  intellect  under  due  sub- 
jection to  its  Maker? 

In  proclaiming  a  National  Fast  Day  in  1863,  Lincoln 
rebuked  the  nation  in  a  vein  very  similar  to  that  in 
which   the   Oriental,    Tagore,   has   criticised   European 


FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  H 

civilization.  After  suggesting  that  the  awful  calamity 
of  Civil  War  then  desolating  the  land 

might  be  but  a  punishment  inflicted  upon  us  for  our  pre- 
sumptuous sins,  to  the  needful  end  of  our  national  reformation 
as  a  whole  people, 

he  proceeds  as  follows: 

"We  have  been  the  recipients  of  the  choicest  bounties  of 
heaven.  We  have  been  preserved  these  many  years  in  peace 
and  prosperity.  We  have  grown  in  numbers,  wealth  and 
power  as  no  other  nation  has  ever  grown;  but  we  have  for- 
gotten God.  We  have  forgotten  the  gracious  hand  which 
preserved  us  in  peace  and  multiplied  and  enriched  and  strength- 
ened us;  and  we  have  vainly  imagined  in  the  deceitfulness  of 
our  hearts  that  all  these  blessings  were  produced  by  some 
superior  wisdom  and  virtue  of  our  own.  Intoxicated  with 
unbroken  success,  we  have  become  too  self-sufficient  to  feel  the 
necessity  of  redeeming  and  preserving  grace,  too  proud  to  pray 
to  the  God  that  made  us." 

These  are  the  words  of  a  statesman,  not  a  preacher. 
They  were  written  by  a  temporal  ruler  in  an  effort  to 
awaken  the  conscience  of  his  fellow-citizens  to  a  sense 
of  their  spiritual  duty. 

Have  we  in  our  day,  like  our  fathers,  come  to  believe 
that  the  blessings  of  the  last  half-century  were  produced 
by  "some  superior  wisdom  or  virtue  of  our  own"? 

We  have  abolished  the  holiday  which  Lincoln  pro- 
claimed in  that  stirring  message,  and  in  its  stead  we 
have  established  another  which  we  devote  chiefly  to 
games,  sport  and  play. 

Have  we,  like  our  European  cousins,  made  the  facilis 


12  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

descensus  to  gross  materialism  and  utilitarianism? 
Whatever  be  the  cause  of  this  war,  the  lesson  of  the 
day  —  this  Independence  Day  —  is  plain  and  our  duty  as 
Americans  equally  so.  Let  me  in  stating  that  duty 
substitute  for  my  own  poor  words  those  of  a  distin- 
guished Boston  citizen,  whose  wisdom  and  patriotism 
no  one  questions,  his  Eminence  Cardinal  O'Connell: 

"The  civil  authority  of  our  nation  by  a  perfectly  legitimate 
act  of  authority  declared  us  at  war  —  that  means  that  every 
citizen  of  America,  bowing  to  that  sense  of  obligation  which 
he  assumes  as  a  citizen,  must  do  his  fullest  conscientious  duty 
toward  his  country  and  for  her  defence. 

"The  manner  and  place  by  which  that  duty  is  to  be  accom- 
plished is  for  our  legitimate  government  to  decide.  Our 
simple  and  sacred  duty  is  obedience  to  that  authority.  The 
one  thing  now  that  is  necessary  and  the  only  thing  that  will 
stand  firmly  through  all  the  varying  vicissitudes  now  before 
us  will  be  this  principle  —  our  country  is  at  war  —  and  we  are 
bound  before  God  to  render  it  our  fullest  service.  Hate  no 
one.  Despise  no  one.  The  nation  that  enters  war  for  hatred's 
sake  has  already  lost  even  before  she  fights  her  first  battle." 

The  obstacles  which  stand  between  us  and  victory 
are  no  greater  or  graver  than  those  which  beset  the 
colonies.  There  were  in  the  colonial  days  those  who 
did  not  sympathize  with  the  colonial  cause,  who  pre- 
ferred peace  to  independence.  Twelve  hundred  such 
persons  departed  with  General  Gage  when  his  troops 
evacuated  this  city.  They  took  up  their  home  in  Nova 
Scotia  and  New  Brunswick.  Loyalists  to  the  number 
of  twelve  thousand  left  New  York  about  the  same  time 
for  the  same  reason.     We  are  told  that  now  there  are 


FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  13 

some  who  find  themselves  unable  to  concur  with  our 
government;  in  fact  they  oppose  the  policy  of  our 
government  in  its  crisis  as  openly  as  they  dare. 

To  such  persons  I  would  make  a  suggestion  in  keep- 
ing with  their  pacific  proclivities.  The  time  has  come  for 
another  evacuation  of  Boston.  There  is  no  room  here 
for  anyone  who  is  not  willing  to  give  the  fullest  measure 
of  his  support  to  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
Woodrow  Wilson,  to  the  navy,  and  the  army  of  which 
he  is  the  commander-in-chief,  and  to  the  flag  of  our 
country  wherever  it  flies.  The  patriots  of  the  Revolu- 
tion met  all  the  discouragements  and  difficulties  which 
confront  us  now.  And  their  victories  were  achieved  in 
spite  of  hindrances  and  obstacles  in  nowise  different 
from  those  with  which  our  country  is  now  contending. 
Have  we  organizations  of  business  men  contriving  to 
inflate  the  price  of  the  necessaries  of  life?  If  so,  history 
is  merely  repeating  itself.  For  Washington  often  com- 
plained of  those  citizens  who  combined  to  corner  food- 
stuffs and  demand  high  prices.  Men  became  wealthy 
on  the  supply  contracts  of  a  single  campaign.  More 
than  one  huge  American  fortune  had  its  foundation  in 
this  detestable  species  of  plunder.  Provisions  were 
charged  for  time  after  time,  and  in  many  instances 
never  delivered.  Many  times  the  goods  supplied  were 
inferior  to  those  for  which  the  contract  called.  Counter- 
feit money  and  forged  documents  were  frequently  the 
implements  by  which  designing  men  imposed  upon  the 
colonies. 

Washington  wrote  to  Joseph  Reed  that  ''Speculation, 
peculation  and  insatiable  thirst  for  riches  seem  to  have 


14  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

gotten  the  better  of  every  other  consideration,  and  almost 
every  order  of  men  and  party  disputes  and  personal 
quarrels  are  the  greatest  business  of  the  day." 

Do  we  hear  now  that  exemption  boards  and  surgeons 
are  being  approached  by  agents  of  those  who  would 
evade  their  military  duty?  If  so,  there  is  nothing  new 
in  the  scheme.  For  Washington  had  occasion  also  to 
complain  that  army  surgeons  entertained  sham  com- 
plaints, taking  bribes  from  the  men  for  procuring  their 
release  from  different  kinds  of  service.  Many  privates 
served  only  for  the  bounty;  many  demanded  double 
bounties;  some  deserted  to  re-enlist,  and  thus  secure  a 
second  bounty.  These  instances  may  be  recalled,  not 
to  disparage  the  men  who  won  our  liberties  for  us,  but 
rather  for  the  purpose  of  more  adequately  appraising 
the  service  of  the  Revolutionary  heroes  who,  in  spite  of 
these  ebullitions  of  greed,  selfishness  and  depravity 
which  surrounded  them,  were  able,  nevertheless,  to 
maintain  the  standard  of  honor  which  must  have  pre- 
dominated in  the  colonies. 

It  will  be  helpful  for  us  also  to  realize  that  noble, 
generous  service  to  the  country,  the  part  of  true  patri- 
otism, is  no  more  difficult  than  in  the  days  of  the 
Revolution,  when  Frankhn,  Robert  Morris,  Joseph 
Reed,  the  Adamses  and  the  CarroUs,  although  not  on 
the  firing  line,  won  and  deserved  renown  equal  to  that 
of  the  bravest  soldiers. 

Although  in  all  human  affairs  defections  from  honor 
and  rectitude  are  inevitable,  it  is  nevertheless  the  duty 
of  the  hour  to  aim  at  eradicating  every  influence  which 
tends  to  weaken  Americanism  as  a  principle. 


FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  15 

In  recent  years  we  have  seen  the  baneful  power  of 
sectarianism  and  religious  bigotry  asserting  itself  in 
legislatures,  at  the  polls,  in  industry  and  commerce,  in 
the  schools,  in  the  courts,  in  the  Press,  in  the  jury  box, 
and  sometimes  —  God  save  the  mark  —  in  pulpits. 

Nothing  could  be  more  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of 
Americanism  than  this  antagonism  which  springs  from 
racial  and  religious  prejudice.  Nothing  so  embitters 
life,  both  public  and  private,  as  the  consciousness  that 
our  neighbors  distrust  or  despise  us  because  of  our  race 
or  religion.  Nothing  can  be  more  subversive  of  the 
American  ideal  of  equality  than  to  consider  at  all  the 
religion  of  our  neighbor  in  our  intercourse  with  him  as 
a  citizen. 

The  bigot  is  a  public  nuisance  and  should  be  treated 
as  such.  The  man  who  for  political  gain  stirs  up 
religious  prejudice  is  a  traitor  to  his  country  and  deserves 
the  penalty  of  treason. 

What  we  want  in  these  United  States,  now  more  than 
ever,  is  a  united  people,  mutually  respectful  of  one 
another's  rights,  liberties  and  beliefs.  An  enlightened, 
upright  citizenship  will  be  quick  to  crush  any  sentiment 
or  propaganda  which  tends  to  divide  us.  We  never 
should  disagree  on  personal  rights,  and  now  particularly, 
when  we  are  drawing  the  line  of  battle  to  defend  the 
principle  of  equality  of  all  men,  which  is  at  once  the 
distinctive  feature  of  our  government  and  the  basic 
principle  of  true  religion. 

We  need  today  more  than  ever  to  take  a  new  inven- 
tory of  our  national  stock,  to  direct  our  daily  lives  in 
broader,    deeper    channels   of    association.    We    sorely 


16  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

need  to  learn  that  regardless  of  where  we  first  saw  the 
light,  or  what  blood  runs  in  our  veins,  whether  our 
ancestors  were  of  Puritan  stock,  or  Spanish,  or  French, 
or  Teuton,  or  Slav,  or  Kelt,  we  must  wherever  we  meet 
recognize  and  salute  one  another  frankly  and  cordially 
as  straight,  unqualified  fellow  Americans.  When  we 
have  done  with  our  silly  notions  of  racial  superiority, 
we  shall  have  heard  the  last  of  the  hyphens  and  the 
accursed  caste  which  it  has  been  used  to  denote. 

It  is  significant  of  the  extent  to  which  we  have,  as  a 
people,  deviated  from  the  ideal  of  our  political  system 
to  find  among  foreigners,  as  we  sometimes  do,  a  livelier, 
purer  concept  of  our  institutions  than  exists  in  our  own 
intercourse  with  one  another. 

Rabbi  Wise  of  New  York  used  to  tell  a  wonderful 
story  of  a  group  of  political  prisoners  held  in  dungeon 
cells  in  St.  Petersburg  awaiting  transport  to  Siberia. 
There  were  among  them  men  of  culture  and  scholarship 
who  had  studied  civics,  pohtical  history  and  constitu- 
tional government.  It  was  the  morning  of  July  4,  1876, 
and  someone  remembered  that  it  was  the  centennial 
anniversary  of  the  American  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence. Quickly  the  shirts  of  the  men  were  torn  up  and 
other  articles  of  clothing  also,  and  the  women  of  the 
band  crudely  but  fondly  stitched  together  these  shreds 
and  strips,  thus  devising  as  best  they  might  a  replica  of 
that  beauteous  emblem  of  liberty  which  at  that  very 
hour  floated  over  the  exposition  grounds  of  Phila- 
delphia. And  from  the  barred  window  of  their  dungeon 
they  flung  it  out  boldly  to  salute  the  breezes  of  St. 
Petersburg. 


FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION.  17 

No  one  in  that  band  of  Russian  exiles  ever  saw  the 
United  States,  nor  could  hope  ever  to  come  within  the 
protection  of  that  flag,  the  meaning  of  which  they  knew 
so  well.  But  never  did  Old  Glory  fly  in  more  sublime 
defiance  of  tyranny  —  never  did  it  more  nobly  express 
the  spirit  of  true  Americanism  than  did  that  rude  banner, 
fashioned  by  the  hands  of  these  unhappy  convicts  in 
their  Russian  dungeon. 

Yet  there  can  be  found  here  today  many  Americans 
who  hold  aloof  from  the  kindred  of  these  exiles,  and 
some  who  would  by  law  exclude  from  our  shores  the 
race  from  which  they  sprang. 

The  roster  of  our  conscript  army,  when  finally  made 
up,  will  silence  decisively  the  agitation  for  restricted 
emigration. 

"To  the  making  of  heroes  like  these,  perforce. 
Humanity's  federate  blood  strains  have  gone; 
But,  Keltic,  or  Saxon,  Teuton  or  Norse, 
Latin  or  Slav,  they  are  Yankees  of  course, 
For  freedom  has  fused  them  in  one," 

It  is  written  that  Hannibal,  while  yet  a  lad,  was 
brought  by  his  father,  Hamilcar,  to  the  temple  of  the 
gods,  and  there  in  the  solemn  presence  of  the  deities 
was  sworn  to  vengeance  on  the  enemies  of  his  race.  It 
was  a  pagan  lesson  in  patriotism;  but  in  essence  and 
effect  it  was  a  father's  appeal  to  his  boy  to  so  live  that 
his  posterity  might  be  stronger  and  better.  Such  is  the 
admonition  that  every  father  would  burn  into  the  con- 
science of  his  offspring. 


18  FOURTH  OF  JULY  ORATION. 

"With  malice  for  none,"  but  with  charity  for  all,  let 
us  at  this  hallowed  shrine  of  human  liberty  consecrate 
ourselves  and  our  sons  to  deathless  devotion  to  our 
beloved  country,  and,  if  necessary,  to  eternal  warfare 
for  its  defence  and  preservation. 


A    LIST 


BOSTON    MUNICIPAL    ORATORS. 


By  C.   W.   ERNST. 


BOSTON     ORATORS 
Appointed  by  the  Municipal  Authorities. 


For  the  Anniversary  of  the  Boston  Massacre,  March  5,  1770. 

Note. —  The  Fifth  of  March  orations  were  published  in  handsome  quarto  editions, 
now  very  scarce;  also  collected  in  book  form  in  1785  and  again  in  1807.  The  oration 
of  1776  was  delivered  in  Watertown. 

1771.  —  Lovell,  James, 

1772.  —  Warren,  Joseph.^ 

1773.  —  Church,  Benjamin.^ 

1774.  —  Hancock,  John.*^ 

1775.  —  Warren,  Joseph. 

1776.  —  Thacher,  Peter. 

1777.  —  HiCHBORN,  Benjamin. 

1778.  —  Austin,  Jonathan  Williams. 

1779.  —  Tudor,  William. 

1780.  —  Mason,  Jonathan,  Jun. 

1781.  —  Dawes,  Thomas,  Jun. 

1782.  —  Minot,  George  Richards. 

1783.  —  Welsh,  Thomas. 


For  the  Anniversary  of  National  Independence,  July  4}  1776. 

Note. —  A  collected  edition,  or  a  full  collection,  of  these  orations  has  not  been  made. 
For  the  names  of  the  orators,  as  officially  printed  on  the  title  pages  of  the  orations,  see 
the  Municipal  Register  of  1890. 

1783.  —  Warren,  John.^ 

1784.  —  HiCHBORN,  Benjamin. 

1785.  —  Gardner,  John. 

a  Reprinted  in  Newport,  R.  I.,  1774,  8vo.,  19  pp. 

b  A  third  edition  was  pubUshed  in  1773. 

1  Reprinted  in  Warren's  Life.  The  orations  of  1783  to  1786  were  published  in  large 
quarto;  the  oration  of  1787  appeared  in  octavo;  the  oration  of  1788  was  printed  in  small 
quarto ;  all  succeeding  orations  appeared  in  octavo,  with  the  exceptions  stated  under  1863 
and  1876. 


22 


APPENDIX. 


1786 
1787 
1788 
1789 
1790 
1791 
1792 
1793 
1794 
1795 
1796 
1797 
1798 
1799 
1800 
1801 
1802 
1803 
1804 
1805 
1806 
1807 
1808 
1809 
1810 
1811 
1812 
1813 


Austin,  Jonathan  Loeing. 
Dawes,  Thomas,  Jun. 
Otis,  Harrison  Gray. 
Stillman,  Samuel. 
Gray,  Edward. 
Crafts,  Thomas,  Jun. 
Blake,  Joseph,  Jun.^ 
Adams,  John  Quincy.^ 
Phillips,  John. 
Blake,  George. 
Lathrop,  John,  Jun. 
Callender,  John, 
quincy,  josiah.2'3 
Lowell,  John,  Jun.^ 
Hall,  Joseph. 
Paine,  Charles. 
Emerson,  William. 
Sullivan,  William. 
Danforth,  Thomas.2 
Button,  Warren. 
Channing,  Francis  Dana.^ 
Thacher,  Peter.2'  5 
Ritchie,  Andrew,  Jun.^ 
Tudor,  William,  Jun.^ 
Townsend,  Alexander. 
Savage,  James.^ 
Pollard,  Benjamin.^ 
Livermore,  Edward  St.  Loe. 


2  Passed  to  a  second  edition. 

3  Delivered  another  oration  in  1826.     Quincy's  oration  of  1798  was  reprinted,  also, 
in  Philadelphia. 

«  Not  printed. 

B  On'February  26,  1811,  Peter  Thacher's  name  was  changed  to  Peter  Oxenbridge  Thacher. 
(List  of  Persons  whose  Names  have  been  Changed  in  Massachusetts,  1780-1892,  p.  21.) 


APPENDIX.  23 

1814.  —  Whitwell,  Benjamin. 

1815.  —  Shaw,  Lemuel. 

1816.  —  Sullivan,  George.^ 

1817.  —  Channing,  Edward  Tyrrel. 

1818.  —  Gray,  Francis  Galley. 

1819.  —  Dexter,  Franklin. 

1820.  —  Lyman,  Theodore,  Jun. 

1821.  —  LoRiNG,  Charles  Greely.^ 

1822.  —  Gray,  John  Chipman. 

1823.  —  Curtis,  Charles  Pelham.^ 

1824.  —  Bassett,  Francis. 

1825.  —  Sprague,  Charles.^ 

1826.  —  quincy,  josiah.^ 

1827.  —  Mason,  William  Powell. 

1828.  —  Sumner,  Bradford. 

1829.  —  Austin,  James  Trecothick. 

1830.  —  Everett,  Alexander  Hill. 

1831.  —  Palfrey,  John  Gorham. 

1832.  —  QuiNCY,  Josiah,  Jun. 

1833.  —  Prescott,  Edward  Goldsborough. 

1834.  —  Fay,  Richard  Sullivan. 

1835.  —  HiLLARD,  George  Stillman. 

1836.  —  Kinsman,  Henry  Willis. 

1837.  —  Chapman,  Jonathan. 

1838.  —  Winslow,  Hubbard.     "  The  Means  of  the  Per- 

petuity and  Prosperity  of  our  Republic." 

1839.  —  Austin,  Ivers  James. 

1840.  —  Power,  Thomas. 

1841.  —  Curtis,  George  Ticknor.^     "The  True  Uses 

of  American  Revolutionary  History."^ 

1842.  —  Mann,  Horace.^ 

8  Six  editions  up  to  1831.     Reprinted  also  in  his  Life  and  Letters. 
'  Reprinted  in  his  Municipal  History  of  Boston.     See  1798. 

8  Delivered  another  oration  in  1862. 

9  There  are  five  or  more  editions;  only  one  by  the  City. 


24  APPENDIX. 

1843.  —  Adams,  Charles  Francis. 

1844.  —  Chandler,  Peleg  Whitman.     "The  Morals  of 

Freedom." 

1845.  —  Sumner,  Charles.^"     "The  True  Grandeur  of 

Nations." 

1846.  —  Webster,  Fletcher. 

1847.  —  Cary,  Thomas  Greaves. 

1848.  —  Giles,  Joel.     "Practical  Liberty." 

1849.  —  Greenough,  William  Whitwell.     "  The  Con- 

quering Republic." 
1850. — Whipple,  Edwin  Percy.^^     "Washington  and 
the  Principles  of  the  Revolution." 

1851.  —  Russell,  Charles  Theodore. 

1852.  —  King,   Thomas   Starr.^     "The   Organization 

of  Liberty  on  the  Western  Continent.  "^^ 

1853.  —  Bigelow,  Timothy.^3 

1854.  —  Stone,  Andrew  Leete.^     "  The  Struggles  of 

American  History." 

1855.  —  Miner,  Alonzo  Ames. 

1856.  —  Parker,  Edward  Griffin.     "The  Lesson  of 

76  to  the  Men  of  '56." 

1857.  —  Alger,  William  Rounseville.^*    "  The  Genius 

and  Posture  of  America." 

1858.  —  Holmes,  John  Somers.^ 

1859.  —  Sumner,  Georgb.^^ 

1860.  —  Everett,  Edward. 

1861.  —  Parsons,  Theophilus. 

1862.  —  Curtis,  George  Ticknor.^ 

1863.  —  Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell. ^^ 

1864.  —  Russell,  Thomas. 

10  Passed  tlirough  three  editions  in  Boston  and  one  in  London,  and  was  answered  in  a 
pamphlet,  Remarks  upon  an  Oration  delivered  by  Charles  Sumner  ....  July  4th, 
1845.  By  a  Citizen  of  Boston.  See  Memoir  and  Letters  of  Charles  Sumner,  by  Edward 
L.  Pierce,  vol.  ii.  337-384. 

11  There  is  a  second  edition.     (Boston:  Ticknor,  Reed  &  Fields.     1850.     49  pp.  12°.) 

12  First  published  by  the  City  in  1892. 

1'  This  and  a  number  of  the  succeeding  orations,  up  to  1861,  contain  the  speeches,  toasts, 
etc.,  of  the  City  dinner  usually  given  in  Faneuil  Hall  on  the  Fourth  of  July. 


APPENDIX.  25 

1865.  —  Manning,    Jacob    Merrill.     "Peace    under 

Liberty.  "2 

1866.  —  LoTHROP,  Samuel  Kirkland. 

1867.  —  Hepworth,  George  Hughes. 

1868.  —  Eliot,  Samuel.     ''The  Functions  of  a  City." 

1869.  —  Morton,  Ellis  Wesley. 

1870.  —  Everett,  William. 

1871.  —  Sargent,  Horace  Binney. 

1872.  —  Adams,  Charles  Francis,  Jun. 

1873.  —  Ware,  John  Fothergill  Waterhouse. 

1874.  —  Frothingham,  Richard. 

1875.  —  Clarke,  James  Freeman.     "Worth  of  Repub- 

lican Institutions." 

1876.  —  Winthrop,  Robert  Charles. ^^ 

1877.  —  Warren,  William  Wirt. 

1878.  —  Healy,  Joseph. 

1879.  —  Lodge,  Henry  Cabot. 

1880.  —  Smith,  Robert  Dickson.^^ 

1881.  —  Warren,    George   Washington.     "Our   Re- 

pubhc  —  Liberty    and     Equahty     Founded 
on  Law." 

1882.  —  Long,  John  Davis. 

1883.  —  Carpenter,    Henry    Bernard.      "American 

Character  and  Influence." 

1884.  —  Shepard,  Harvey  Newton. 

1885.  —  Gargan,  Thomas  John. 

w  Probably  four  editions  were  printed  in  1857.  (Boston:  Office  Boston  Daily  Bee, 
60  pp.)  Not  until  November  22,  1864,  was  Mr.  Alger  asked  by  the  City  to  furnish  a 
copy  for  publication.  He  granted  the  request,  and  the  first  official  edition  (J.  E.  Far- 
well  &  Co.,  1864,  53  pp.)  was  then  issued.  It  lacks  the  interesting  preface  and  appendix 
of  the  early  editions. 

IB  There  is  another  edition.  (Boston:  Ticknor  &  Fields,  1859,  69  pp.)  A  third  (Boston: 
Rockwell  &  Churchill,  1882,  46  pp.)  omits  the  dinner  at  Faneml  Hall,  the  correspondence 
and  events  of  the  celebration. 

16  There  is  a  preliminary  edition  of  twelve  copies.  (J.  E.  Farwell  &  Co.,  1863.  (7); 
71  pp.)  It  is  "the  first  draft  of  the  author's  address,  turned  into  larger,  legible  type, 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  rendering  easier  its  public  delivery."  It  was  done  by  "the  liberality 
of  the  City  Authorities,"  and  is,  typographically,  the  handsomest  of  these  orations.  This 
resulted  in  the  large-paper  75-page  edition,  printed  from  the  same  type  as  the  71-page 
edition,  but  modified  by  the  author.  It  is  printed  "by  order  of  the  Common  Council." 
The  regular  edition  is  in  60  pp.,  octavo  size. 


26  APPENDIX. 

1886.  —  Williams,  George  Frederick. 

1887.  —  Fitzgerald,  John  Edward, 

1888.  —  DiLLAWAY,  William  Edward  Lovell. 

1889.  —  Swift,  John  Lindsay.^^     "The  American  Citi- 

zen." 

1890.  —  PiLLSBURY,  Albert  Enoch.     "Public  Spirit." 

1891.  —  QuiNCY,  JosiAH.20     "  The  Coming  Peace." 

1892.  —  Murphy,  John  Robert. 

1893.  —  Putnam,    Henry    Ware.     "The    Mission    of 

Our  People." 

1894.  —  O'Neil,  Joseph  Henry. 

1895.  —  Berle,  Adolph  Augustus.     "The  Constitu- 

tion and  the  Citizens." 

1896.  —  Fitzgerald,  John  Francis. 

1897.  —  Hale,    Edward    Everett,     "The    Contribu- 

tion of  Boston  to  American  Independence." 

1898.  —  O'Callaghan,  Rev,  Denis, 

1899.  —  Matthews,  Nathan,  Jr.     "Be  Not  Afraid  of 

Greatness." 

1900.  —  O'Meara,  Stephen,     "Progress  Through  Con- 

flict," 

1901.  —  Guild,  Curtis,  Jr,     "Supremacy  and  its  Con- 

ditions." 

1902.  —  CoNRY,  Joseph  A. 

1903, —  Mead,  Edwin  D,  "The  Principles  of  the 
Founders." 

1904.  —  Sullivan,  John  A,  "Boston's  Past  and  Pres- 
ent.    What  Will  Its  Future  Be?" 

1'  There  is  a  large  paper  edition  of  fifty  copies  printed  from  this  type,  and  also  an  edition 
from  the  press  of  John  Wilson  &  Son,  1876.     55  pp.  8°. 

18  On  Samuel  Adams,  a  statue  of  whom,  by  Miss  Anne  Whitney,  had  just  been  completed 
for  the  City.     A  photograph  of  the  statue  is  added. 

w  Contains  a  bibliography  of  Boston  Fourth  of  July  orations,  from  1783  to  1889,  inclusive, 
compiled  by  Lindsay  Swift,  of  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

20  Reprinted  by  the  American  Peace  Society. 


APPENDIX.  27 

1905.  —  Colt,    Le    Baron    Bradford.     "America's 

Solution  of  the  Problem  of  Government." 

1906.  —  CoAKLEY,  Timothy  Wilfred.     "The  American 

Race:  Its  Origin,  the  Fusion  of  Peoples;   Its 
Aim,  Fraternity." 

1907.  —  HoRTON,  Rev.  Edward  A.     "Patriotism  and 

the  Republic." 

1908.  —  Hill,  Arthur  Dehon.     "The  Revolution  and 

a  Problem  of  the  Present." 

1909.  —  Spring,  Arthur  Langdon.     "The  Growth  of 

Patriotism." 

1910.  — Wolff,  James  Harris.     "The  Building  of  the 

Republic." 

1911.  —  Eliot,  Charles  W.     "The  Independence  of 

1776  and  the  Dependence  of  1911." 

1912.  —  Pelletier,  Joseph  C.     "  Respect  for  the  Law." 

1913.  —  MacFarland,  Grenville  S.     "A  New  Decla- 

ration of  Independence." 

1914.  —  Supple,    Rev.    James    A.     "Religion:     The 

Hope  of  the  Nation." 

1915.  —  Brandeis,  Louis  D.     "True  Americanism." 

1916.  —  Chapple,  Joe  Mitchell.     "The  New  Ameri- 

canism." 

1917.  —  Gallagher,  Daniel  J.     "Americans  Welded 

by  War." 


BOSTON  COLLEGE 


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